Untitled Sermon

* παλιγγενεσία. Zn., Kl., Schl. Mt. on 19:28; Wbg., Dib. Past. on Tt. 3:5; Pr.-Bauer, s.v. Cf. also → γεννάω, 668.

1 Acc. to the rule established by E. Fraenkel, Ztschr. f. vergleichende Sprachforschung, 45 (1913), 160 ff., the fem. -σία replaces the simple -σις in compounds, as θέσις becomes νομοθεσία, νουθεσία, υἱοθεσία and κάθαρσις ἀκαθαρσία. The koine often has παλινγενεσία, Debr. Griech. Wortb., 125, n.

2 The original notion was not that of human birth, nor esp. of birth on the basis of sexual conception; whether and how far this later penetrated into it calls for investigation.

3 Related words are παλιγγενής, “regenerate” (first attested in Nonnus Dionys., II, 650 [c. 400 A.D.]), which is formed analog. to ἀγενής, εὐγενής, and παλιγγενέσιος “concerning regeneration” (attested in Cl. Al. Paed., II, 9, 81, 3). The oldest term seems to be παλιγγενεσία rather than παλιγγενής or παλιγγενέσιος.